The Obsidian Key
by Eisren
Summary: Something goes seriously wrong on a routine mission. Ending in Fairy Tail's most tragic moment. A year passes as the guild tries to forget the awful day, but what happens when Gray and Wendy return from a job with a mysterious Obsidian Celestial Key? Will Team Natsu see an old friend again?
1. Fairy Tails Saddest Day

They were going to eradicate a dark guild. The illegal guild Dripping Fang had been abducting girls from a nearby village and returning them bloodied and battered, the whole team shuddered at the thought of what the girls went through in the clutches of the dark mages.

So that's how he entirety of Team Natsu ended up at the small village of Zephyr with the mission to wipe out the evil wizards and collect their generous reward. What the mages didn't know is that today would go down in Fairy Tail's mission log as the saddest day in the history of the guild.

As the train screeched to a halt, the moaning and groaning opposite Gray ceased, and the pink-haired boy omitting these pitiful sounds jumped up and ran out of the nearly empty car. When the rest of the group joined him he was sporting a much healthier skin tone, no longer the miserable shade of green that made the Ice-Make mage keel over in laughter whenever he saw him in such a state.

Even remembering it made the raven try his hardest not to let loose a string of giggles. Who knows what the pyromaniac would do if he made fun of him while he wasn't incapable of doing anything but being hopeless. It would probably end with a toasted Gray.

He shuddered at the thought.

The group made their way to the village's one hotel, and Erza announced that they would be leaving in an hour to go destroy Dripping Fang. With a sigh, Gray slumped down on his narrow bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Natsu made a promise to himself to ask Wendy about the pain he was feeling. Hell, at this point, he would even ask _Porlyusica_! And that old woman was scary. The pain had started a few months ago, a dull ache in his abdomen that had started at the level of a phantom itch, or the ache of an old scar. But now, it felt as if a knife was being twisted around in his organs. He wasn't sure how much more he could take before his pain became obvious on his face. And three hour train ride definitely hadn't helped. The pinkette was pretty sure Lucy and Erza had noticed he was more miserable than normal. The ice stripper was too busy laughing at his misery to notice anything out of the ordinary.

He grit his teeth as a new wave of pain washed over him, becoming slightly more intense than it was before. _Okay, _he thought, _as soon as this job is taken care of, I'll say something to Erza, she usually knows what to do in these situations. _Nodding in aggrement to his own promise he opened his eyes. Only seeing concerned-looking Lucy looming above him.

"You were making pained noises. Are you alright?"

She was scared for him. And it only made him feel worse. "I'm fine, that train ride~" he said sheepishly. She didn't look like she believed him but dropped the subject,

"You're lying. You better tell me what's wrong when we get back," she paused. "Erza sent me to get you; it's time to go." and she walked out of the room, and down to the street where the she-demon was waiting. For him. He gulped and quickly scrambled out of his bed and ran downstairs. He was not going to give her an excuse to hit him. He was in enough pain as it was.

The two girls and the cat were waiting patiently for the two boys to exit the hotel. Shortly after Natsu came outside. Gray did also, and the quintet made their way to the outskirts of the village, where Dripping Fang was over.

When they arrived, the mages all grinned at each other and assumed battle stances. Then they attacked.

The battle ended quickly enough, Gray and Lucy were taking out the grunts of the guild, around 50 or so, Erza was attacking the guild's two S-Class mages, and Natsu was battling the guild master.

The master was a man about 50, with graying hair and an evil glint in his eye. He used some type of wind magic, though he was nowhere near as strong as Erigor had been, and Natsu had no trouble defeating him, only obtaining a few minor cuts and bruises. Soon enough, he was making his way back into the main room of the guild hall, to see Lucy dismissing Loke and Taurus, and Gray deconstructing a few ice creations. Erza joined them within seconds.

"Well," Lucy said as the four of them walked outside. "That was simple."

They all laughed and Happy soon joined them, coming down from his position looking out for any reinforcements Fang could have called. There evidently weren't any. They made their way back to Zephyr. and Natsu had finally allowed himself to wince at the sharp pain in his gut, hoping that his companions would dismiss to his new injuries. He should have known he wouldn't be that lucky.

"Okay, fire-brain, what's wrong?" the dark haired man asked while giving him a slightly worried glance, it wasn't like his friend to submit to his injuries like that. He had once walked around with two broken ribs for a week before Happy dragged him to Wendy; no one even knew he'd been hurt.

"Hmm?" said mage asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You're in serious pain," Erza said, a glint in her eye, "now admit to it"

He sighed, hesitant to tell, "Yeah, for like two months, its gotten worse."

"Two months?!" they all exclaimed, eyes wide as saucers, the redhead punched him in the head with a gauntleted fist, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

"I was gonna ask Wendy when we got home," he mumbled, but no one seemed to hear.

"How bad is it?" Lucy asked, and Natsu pondered a bit.

He turned to Erza, a look in his eye of amusement, before he winced again, "Remember when you stabbed me?" Their eyes once again grew wide.

"You almost died" she exclaimed, "Baka! What's wrong with you?!"

He laughed, ignoring the glares, but suddenly his laughing turned into coughing. The four looked at him worriedly, and after about a minute he stopped, but stayed in his crouched position staring at something.

"Natsu?" the Exceed hesitantly asked, walking up to his best friend, only to freeze as he saw Natsu's hand. It was covered in blood. The cat looked up, blood dripped out of the Dragon Slayers mouth and onto his half-closed palm. "NATSU!" the blue cat yelled, snapping said boy out of his reverie. He stood up, wiping his hand across his mouth, and his hand against his jacket, but not before the group saw the flash of red on the mage's fist.

"Natsu," Erza started, a bit of fear in her voice, "What just happened-"

"GET DOWN!" the pinkette launched himself at the trio as an arrow wizzed over their heads. That arrow would have hit an unsuspecting Erza between the eyes. The four of them hit the ground hard. Then immediately got up, standing back to back, Natsu's injury momentarily forgotten. "Fang's reinforcements. We were stupid to think they wouldn't come."

Grunts of agreement were heard, and they armed themselves for the oncoming attack. Then they charged. 15 minutes later, the reinforcements were on the ground, obviously not suspecting the power of the mages. The usual post-battle banter was happening, Natsu and Gray arguing over who took out the most enemies, Erza threatening them, and Happy taunting Lucy about one of the boys in the guild. Adamant that she "Liiikkkkkkkeeeedd him~~~"

Lucy noticed one voice falling silent, and turned back to see the pinkette a few paces behind where he had been arguing with his 'rival'. But something was wrong. A dark shape protruded from his gut and his blood dripped down to the ground. Standing behind him was a half-conscious Fang mage, a grin on his face.

Lucy screamed.

The dark wizard fell unconscious shortly after Lucy screamed, but the damage was done. The Shadow-Blade pierce straight through Natsu's abdomen, and he fell to his knees, unable to stay standing. Gray was the first to him, hastily unbuttoning the pyromaniac's vest and ripping up his own shirt to use as bandages.

Erza was second, she propped up Natsu's head and helped lift him slightly off the ground as Gray wrapped the torn shirt around his stomach. The light green fabric quickly turned dark. Lucy and Happy seemed unable to move. Seeing that the bandages weren't helping in the slightest, Gray quickly tore them off and sealed the wound with ice. The bleeding stopped, but Natsu's face was unnaturally pale.

Lucy finally found herself able to move and plopped down next to Natsu, watching Gray try to keep the ice from melting. She looked at the wound. And nearly screamed again. A four inch gash disfigured the left side of his stomach, and a six inch gash went through the right side of his back. The dirt under her knees was warm with quickly chilling blood, she took her best friend's hand and flinched at how cold it was. _He's not supposed to be cold, _she thought, _He's Natsu. He's warm._

Said boys eyes were struggling to stay open as Erza yelled at him to stay awake, to stay awake and "not let a little scratch like this best you!" Her words were defied by the tears streaming down her face. The blonde looked at Gray and saw that he has streams of water running down, despite his concentrated expression. Now that she thought of it, her face felt well also; she wondered how long she'd been crying. She also noticed a warm spot on her shoulder, as well as whiskers ticking her nose. Happy. How numb had she been to not notice his presence?

"Why are you crying?"

They all stared shocked at the pink-haired boy in front of them. "Who made you cry?" he asked, "I'll make them pay for making you cry." His eyes flitted between the four mages, a look of concern and anger on his face, though it seemed unable to reach his eyes.

"Natsu!" Erza exclaimed, "Save your strength! Don't talk." She brushed his hair out of his face.

"But-"

"Listen to Erza flame-brain," Gray ordered, fresh tears falling. This was like Natsu. The idiot's about to... and he wants to beat up the person who made us sad.

The Dragon Slaye, of course didn't listen, and attempted to sit up, leaning heavily against Erza as he did so. He grimaced as he saw his wound. "So it did happen..." he muttered weakly.

"What do you mean 'It did happen'?"

"Wasn't sure. About the same level as it was before..."

"IDIOT!" it took all of Erza's willpower, and Lucy's strength, to keep the requip mage from hitting Natsu across the head, "Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?!"

"Didn't... seem... importan-" he slowly started to fall out of consciousness. This time the she-demon really _did _hit him.

"Stay awake!"

He looked at hem tiredly, and smiled his signature smile, before raising an arm and patting each of them where he could reach. He patted Gray's head, from where it was bent over him, still trying to keep his ice from melting against the pinkette's intense body heat. A tear fell onto his stomach. He patted Lucy's shoulder and rubbed Happy's back, eliciting sobs from both of them. and finally laid his hand on Erza's knee. She looked angry. He then stuck out his Index and thumb before his arm fell to the ground and his eyes closed. Then his smile started to fade, leaving him in a semi-peaceful expression. It looked so _wrong _on the fire mage, he never looked that peaceful, not even when he slept. But he wasn't going to wake up from this.

Lucy frantically searched his wrist for a pulse, finding silence. She laid her ear on his chest. Silence. Unmoving. De-. She wailed loudly as she clutched his hand like a lifeline, never wanting to let go. They all began sobbing, mourning the life of their guild, the person who always brought happiness and confidence with him.

After about ten minutes of hopelessness, Gray noticed something. The hand he had been gripping was starting to blur around the edges, he stared at it quizzically, and thought he was hallucinating until he heard Erza's scream. Natsu's still, peaceful face was beginning to fade around the edges. Looking down he saw that most of his legs had been erased. It was like what Mira described Lisanna's 'death', but different. Instead of taking him away, it seemed the universe was trying to erase their dastardly deed. Trying to erase their biggest mistake. Trying to erase Natsu's death.

They clung to him, much like what Mira had done to her sister, but they were clinging to the memory of their brother and best friend, unsuccessfully trying to keep him in this world. But the body they clung to soon was replaced with air, slowly erasing him from their arms.

In the end, all that was left was the blood, and his scarf.

The group sobbed as they, too, replicated the Fairy Tail symbol and cried until the sun rose. Never leaving their spots huddled around where their best friend had disappeared.

It truly was Fairy Tail's saddest day.


	2. The Key

**[A/N: **I do not own Fairy Tail...**]**

CHAPTER 2- The Key

The guild had taken the loss hard. At first, no one had wanted to believe the four mages that had walked through the door without the fifth, but once they saw the expressions they wore and the tears that were threatening to spill from their eyes they accepted the truth. Natsu was dead. Master Makarov, despite the overwhelming sorrow of losing his 'son', had contacted all of the guilds that may be interested in attending the funeral.

Four days after the remnants of Team Natsu returned, the funeral was held, with all of Fairy Tail, and some of Blue Pegasus, Sabertooth, Mermaid Heel, Crime Sorciere, and many other independent mages n attendance. The ceremony was short, all of the speakers told stories about how brave the Dragon Slayer was, made fun of his denseness, and told of his heroism. It was a very tearful ceremony.

Even now, nine months after the reception, the guild remained quiet; brawls hardly ever broke out, the angry letters from the Council decreased with enough speed to give the Maser a splitting headache, and Fairy Tail lacked the one person that could put a smile on anyone's face, or could start an all-inclusive fist fight in less than five seconds.

While the guild was taking it's time with recovering, the team that was lacking their best friend was recovering even slower. All four mages (plus Wendy who though that she could have helped if she had come along) were still blaming themselves for what had happened. _If only I had realized he was hurting, _They all thought, _We could have convinced him not to go ob=n that mission, and he would have been healed by Wendy or Porlyusica._

But, eventually, they had all come to terms with the fact that they would never see their Dragon Slayer again. Gray had been the first one to go on a mission after he died. A few weeks later, Erza dragged happy with her on a mission in Crocus, and about two months after his death, Lucy had decided to go on a research-type mission with Levy, Claiming that she was "Nearly two months behind her rent!"

Things at the guild began to return to normal, albeit a quieter, less destructive normal, but normal nonetheless. And on a cool February day, Gray and Wendy found something that would take that hard-earned normalcy and flip it onto its head.

Gray and Wendy were on a mission to subdue some bandits that had been terrorizing the merchants coming into Shirotsume Town. The reward was only 50000 Jewels, yet Gray thought it best to accompany Wendy, just in case. After Natsu's death, the young girl became more attached to Gray and Gajeel, obviously trying to make up for her lost brother-figure. Gray didn't mind, in fact, he was flattered really that Wendy had liked him enough to try and forge such a close bond. The relationship that she had shared with the late Dragon Slayer was deep enough that anyone from the outside would immediately peg them as siblings; they had bonded both over their pain of abandonment, their search for the Dragons, and their love of the guild. Those three things had made the two of them closer than he could ever hope to achieve with the young bluenette, but he was perfectly content with how they both relied on each other.

At the moment, the two of them were performing a stakeout, waiting for the bandits to jump the merchants that were arriving later that day. Charle, along with the other two Exceeds, had gone to the small encampment in the East forest to visit their parents and feline friends.

After about another twenty minutes of waiting, the merchants rolled in on their wagons, and the bushes opposite the two mages began to rustle with anticipation, and soon enough, the bandits hopped from the bushes. For some reason the three thieves were dressed in all black, skintight, plastic-y body suits, and, for another reason, which Gray could not understand, Wendy squeaked in terror, hiding behind a tree and muttering something about "True Evil".

With a sigh, Gray came out of his hiding spot, interrupting the rant that the "leader' of the ridiculous thief group had been giving his soon-to-be victim.

"Who are you?" the leader sneered, leering at Gray as his lackeys began murmuring behind him.

"I could ask the same of you." Gray replied in monotone as he eyed their ridiculous costumes, _a joke, right? Maybe they lost a bet…?_

"Boss, isn't that the guild mark of our Goddess?" the fat one said, gesturing t the tattoo on Gray's chest.

The boss's eyes widened as he caught sight of the mark, "It is! Tell me boy. Have you seen the Goddess anywhere? She's about yay tall," he gestured about five feet off the ground, "And would fit into this." He pulled out a similar looking black suit with car-like ears on the hood.

"Gray!" the Dragon Slayer called, "Get rid of them! They're evil!"

The gang of thieves' eye's widened as they heard the voice, "Godeess-chan!" they called as they looked towards a frightened looking Wendy. But the second one of them took a step towards her, they were incased in thick, blue ice. Gray's eyes burned with protectiveness and the bluenette let u a sigh of relief as she walked over to the trader who had been about to get robbed.

"May we transport these criminals on your cart, please?" she asked sweetly, flashing a smile and puppy-dog eyes. The man nodded, and Gray added another sucker to the list of Wendy's 'Puppy-Dog Eyes' victims, something that no one he had ever met had been impervious to.

Thirty minutes later, they had reentered the village, and were going to the mayor's house to collect the reward.

Seeing as though they managed to not destroy anything on the mission, they received the full 50,000 Jewels, and, as they were returning to the train station, they were stopped by one of the members of the local merchant guild.

"Are you the Fairy Tail mages?" he asked hesitantly, nervousness making him fidget uncomfortably until they shifted their clothing to show their tattoos. The merchant's face relaxed considerably and he reached into a pouch connected to his pocket. "If I'm not mistaken," he started, "Your guild has a Celestial Spirit wielder, no?"

The two mages nodded, thinking of the blonde.

The merchant smiled. "As I'm sure you know, those type of mages are rare these days, so my guild has no need for this," he handed a black-colored key to Gray, and even though he didn't know how to sense the Spirits, he could tell that it was humming with magical power, "Please give it to her as a sign of our gratitude."

Gray and Wendy stared at the key for a long while; it was unlike anyone to give them something this special. They stared until they saw the man begin to turn on his heel, a smile on his face, "Thank you!" they both called, and the merchant raised his hand in acknowledgement.

The ice-wizard handed the key to Wendy, the magic energy was beginning to make him feel odd, and it somehow felt warm and familiar. He decided he disliked it.

The sky sorceress accepted the key and they both made their way towards the train.

Once the train began to leave Shirotsume, Wendy took out the key again. She was inspecting the color and design; from what she could tell from Lucy's other keys, you could somewhat tell what the spirit was like due to their key. The Zodiacs displayed their symbols and small hints at their abilities, and the silver keys gave an impression of what the spirit looked like, or what their talents were. That also raised a question, "I thought Lucy said that there were only silver and gold keys," she questioned aloud.

"That's what I thought, too," her partner answered, "I guess he didn't know about this type…"

_Hard to believe_, the bluenette though slyly, her blonde friend had prided herself in knowing a lot about the Spirits and the Spirit World, "She'll be excited when we give this to her."

"Mhmm..."

Then the Ice-Make wizard's head began to droop, it had been a long day, between 'evil' bandits, the mayor and the nice yet mysterious merchant, he was ready to sleep. Though he missed the moaning and groaning that had usually accompanied his non-solo missions.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"LUUUCCYYY!" said mage lifted her head, which had previously been resting on the cool wood of the bar, she saw two young wizards walking quickly over to her, an enthusiastic look on both their faces. Charle, who had returned earlier that day, began to scold Wendy for the state her clothes were in. but what did she expect? The two had gone on a stakeout mission. Hiding in the bushes. They were expected to get a little dirty.

"Lucy!" the bluenette called out enthusiastically, "When we finished the mission, one of the merchants told us to give you this as a bonus!" she fumbled around in her back pocket before picking out a strange black key, "He said it might be a Celestial spirit! And it's humming with enough power that even me and Gray could feel it!"

At this, Lucy raised her eyebrows; it was uncommon for anyone but a Stellar Spirit mage or the spirits themselves to be able to feel the celestial energy. "Wow," she said kind of awestruck, "How powerful do you think it is?"

Gray grinned, "Call it! Let's see your new comrade."

Lucy smiled and took the key from Wendy's outstretched hand, staring at it, shocked when she felt the energy given off. After getting over the overwhelming power of the key she began her chant, "_I am the one that connects this world to that of the Celestial bein-_" A table crashed into the drink display behind her. She stopped, and scowled, "This may not be the best pace to call the spirit forth." She said sadly, "It may not be a good first impression…"

The small group nodded, "Could we go to your house and call it later?" Wendy asked hesitantly.

Lucy smiled sweetly, "Yeah, anyone else you think may want to be there?"

"Definitely Erza and the male cat," Charle replied, and the group nodded.

"Levy-Chan would probably want to go to, and that also means Gajeel and Lily."

"Let's go once they arrive… I think that should be any minute now."

0-0-0-0-0-0

Lucy stared at the key in her hand; it was humming with power, enough that she was sure if she put it down on the table it would give a slight shake. She was sitting outside, with Crux perched near her, snoozing happily as he searched for information on the mysterious spirit.

As she waited for him to tell her what he found, Lucy took it upon herself to examine the key. The key itself was a strange black color, and, unlike her other keys, didn't seem to be made of metal, but rather a strange black stone. It was of similar length to that of the Zodiac keys; and it had a familiar scaled pattern along the shaft. The teeth and upper part of the key were surprisingly bare, seemingly more for utility than decoration. _I wonder what they'll be like_, she thought, _The key isn't giving away much of their personality_. After a few minutes of daydreaming about the spirit, Crux woke up with a snort, an odd expression on his face.

"So? What did you find?"

The old cross looked at her happily. _Lucy will be excited when she calls him._ "I think it's best that you hear everything from _him_" he said, gesturing to the key.

The blonde pouted, but smiled and thanked him before sending him back to his own world.

_She's going to be so happy_.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

An hour after the initial meeting go the mages, Erza and Happy walked in, sitting at a table with Lucy, Wendy, Charle, Gray, Lily, Gajeel, and Levy. The second they sat down, they were immediately dragged out the door by the party.

"Where are we going?" asked the redhead. She didn't appreciate being roughly dragged from the guildhall right as she returned from a mission.

"Lucy got a new spirit! We were waiting on the two of you to come before we called it."

"Ah…" Erza's arm and Happy's tail were released as they turned onto Strawberry Street. They almost ran up the stairs to get into the apartment, and once they were there, they promptly sat around the coffee table, waiting for Lucy to cal her spirit. Wendy and Happy were two balls of energy; Gray, Erza, Levy and Lily were waiting curiously, and Gajeel was thoroughly disinterested.

Lucy sat down on the couch, excited to expand her collection of friends, even though she was slightly nervous about this many people watching her make a contract, she was ecstatic. Crux's vague-ness only drove her to be more excitable, and her excitement had been building geometrically since the key was handed to her.

"_I am the one that connects this world to that of the Celestial beings, I command you! Come forth! Open! Gate of the Unknown Spirit!" _ A red magic circle appeared, and when the light had faded from everyone's vision, their eyes grew wide once again. Gray and Erza stared in shock, Wendy and Happy began sob in shock and happiness, Levy covered her mouth with her hand, tears threatening to leak out, Gajeel and Lily's eyes widened, and Lucy, who was the last to open her eyes due to the drain of her magical energy, was the last one to see what had made her friends silent.

The first thing she saw was the face's of her best friends, all of their eyes were wide, and all, including Gajeel, had tears in their eyes; their mouths were open and they were staring at something like they couldn't believe it was happening.

A few tears fell out of their eyes and, for the first time, Lucy glanced at the Spirit who had left her friends in such a state.

His figure was slightly crouched, his back to her, and because he was clutching his stomach as one would clutch a wound she couldn't see his head or face. After staring at him curiously for a few seconds, her mind registered that he was injured, and she called for the youngest Dragon Slayer. Wendy just sat there though, staring dumbstruck at the crouching figure, before tackling him in a huge hug. Tears ran down the bluenette's face as she hugged his chest, ignoring the wound that was steadily dripping blood onto the floor. Due to Wendy pushing the newcomer over, Lucy could finally see his head and face…

Sakura pink hair was in his head, and his smile was wide, black eyes glittering in amusement as the young girl sobbed happily into his chest. Lucy suddenly remembered why the pattern on the key seemed familiar.

"…Natsu?"

**[A/N: **Well that's finished! So far I am really excited about this story, I originally got the idea from when Lucy and Natsu were fighting the demon that absorbed Hades, Taurus and Aries, and she said something about closing Natsu's Gate to trick him into letting them go. So since that chapter the ideas been sticking to me and I could fine t a whole two fanfictions of the AU.

I have more ideas along the lines of the whole Celestial spirit thing, so if you want to hear those please tell me. Also if you know of any stories like this, that would be great. I really love this idea.

Anyways, thank you for reading! I hope I didn't offend you too much with bad grammar/spelling. I'll try to update soon.

-Ren**]**


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